


(Imaginary) People

by allfireburns



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Community: sunday_reveries, Gen, Introspection, POV Third Person, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-07
Updated: 2009-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-04 06:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allfireburns/pseuds/allfireburns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It might be simpler, Claire thinks, if she were one of the people who never has doubts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Imaginary) People

Claire wonders sometimes how long she can do this, _how_ she can do this. She knows all the lines - _we are helping people, giving them what they need, improving lives, saving lives_ \- and recites them to herself when her faith starts to waver. Still, she knows that's all they are, pretty lies to reassure you, when you start to wonder about the lives you help destroy without batting an eye.

She's not the only one who wavers, she's certain. Boyd never says a word, but he doesn't hide his doubts half as well as he thinks. DeWitt is unwavering and fierce, as far as anyone can tell, but Claire's seen the look on her face sometimes, when she starts to think about the lives in her care.

It might be simpler, she thinks, to be one of those rare people who never has doubts.

Topher bounds toward her as she enters his office, head slightly ducked, hands in his pockets, reminding her vaguely of an apologetic puppy. "Okay, so, hypothetically. _If_ an Active happened to tumble down some stairs and, uh... fracture his skull-"

"_What_?" She rises to her feet, unthinking, and steps out from behind her desk. If it had happened in the Dollhouse, she would have heard before Topher wandered into her office, so...

He raises his hands defensively. "Hypothetically, I said hypothetically! And... okay, it's a little literal."

"_Which_ Active, Topher?"

"Uh... Charlie. He's on his way back with his handler, I'm sure he's perfectly fine besides the slight concussion and, you know, broken bones, _but_ I would like to make it clear that it was absolutely not my fault."

Claire takes a slow breath, and rubs at the bridge of her nose. "So why are you the one telling me about it?"

"I... happened to be the one monitoring his vital signs at the time." He pauses. Claire waits a moment, certain that he'll keep talking soon enough. "_And_ the imprint I gave him... is ap_par_ently epileptic."

"He had a _seizure_?"

"And fell down some stairs. I really didn't anticipate the flashy lights."

She groans and starts walking toward the door, while Topher backs up like he's afraid she's going to hit him, matching her step for step. Claire just rolls her eyes and goes on, "And you somehow failed to notice this when you _made_ the imprint?"

He spreads his hands with an apologetic smile that only lasts until he accidentally backs into the door frame. "It's... never come up. But it'll _never_ happen again, Charlie's fine, and... now you get to treat a skull fracture! You never get those! So... hooray?" He waves one hand in the air in some odd celebratory gesture. He stops at Claire's unamused glare. "I'll just... go back upstairs now."

Claire nods, with a cool and tight-lipped smile. "You do that."

She wonders if he ever even bats an eye at all of this. No one ever dies, hardly ever, and it can't really matter that whole people are created and destroyed and stored away in little wedges on vaguely ordered shelves, whole lives imagined and forgotten in a flash of light, dozens every day. They were never real anyway. She watches him bound up the stairs, two at a time, obviously already moving on to whatever fascinating, theoretically bloodless puzzle he has in front of him now, and she thinks she hates him. She can't bear to think that it might be just because hatred is easier than jealousy.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [(Imaginary) People [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/376602) by [tinypinkmouse_podfic (tinypinkmouse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypinkmouse/pseuds/tinypinkmouse_podfic)




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